DIY Rustic Boho Twig Arrow Ornaments

December 8, 2014/

A few weeks ago, I shared a tutorial for my rustic twig arrow ornaments over at Yellow Bliss Road. They ended up being quite a hit and were even featured on Country Living’s website recently! Today, I am reposting them here in case you might have missed it. These ornaments were the beginning inspiration for our Christmas tree this year. I hope you enjoy this tutorial!

Here is the original post:Today I have another easy and creative DIY craft, especially if you love arrows and are looking to make your own ornaments this year. These twig arrow ornaments are a good mix of rustic and bohemian styles and would make for great conversation pieces on any Christmas tree.

I purchased the feathers, wooden beads and red striped upholstery webbing at craft stores. The gray striped webbing and hemp twine were vintage finds, but you should be able to find them both at crafts stores or online.

Once you have gathered your twigs, break them into small sizes roughly five inches long, but you can vary them larger and smaller. Dab a small amount of hot glue on one end and adhere a feather. You might need to first cut the tips so that the feathers don’t extend too long on the twigs.

I was really loving them at this stage, but since my holiday style this year is what I am calling, “Boho Cabin”, I decided to add some natural and colorful wooden beads. Make sure the beads you select have large enough holes to fit over the twigs. I ended up dabbing a little more glue on the twigs before putting the beads on to make sure they stayed in place.

I varied the sizes and colors…this part you can get really creative with! If you prefer an all natural look, you could skip the colored beads. There are so many possibilities!

My three year old daughter desperately wanted to help with this project, so I let her to choose some of the beads, which is how we ended up with pink (it’s her favorite color). Without her help, I might have left that one in the pile, but I do love how they turned out with the variety of colors (even the pink one). I love how kids can make you think outside the box!

The next step is to make some “arrow heads.” For mine, I chose jute upholstery webbing because it is rustic and sturdy,and I love the way it looks. Cut out double triangles for every arrow. They don’t have to be perfect. The webbing does fray a little, but once it is glued, it stays together fine.

Next, glue one side of the arrow head to the end of the twig. Then glue the top piece on. Press them together to make sure they are secured. You may need to trim the edges up a bit to make them have a sharp point and no frays.

The last part is the most tedious of this project and that is tying on the hemp cord to turn them into ornaments. I chose to wrap the twine around a few times on each end and left enough room in between to hang on the tree.

I started tying the cord right behind the arrow heads and then tied at the feather end or in between the beads.

I don’t have my Christmas tree up yet, so I decided to put them on a found branch for now. They could also make cute Valentine’s decorations!

I wasn’t sure when I started how they would turn out, but now they are completely inspiring my Christmas tree theme for this year. I can’t wait to get it up and decorated!

{Update: I do have my tree up now and you can see these ornaments on it in my Holiday Home Tour!}

Till next time…

~Alice W.

This post originally appeared on Yellow Bliss Road on November 4th, 2014.

Today, I am also sharing my last guest post as part of Kristin’s Creative Team over at Yellow Bliss Road. Head that way when you are done here to check out how I made these Glam Napkin Rings:

Love these! Congrats for having them featured on the Country Living website! I'm in awe of your creativity!! Man, I wish we were neighbors… getting the kiddos tucked in and running over for late-night craft sessions! 🙂

I haven't had a Christmas tree in many years, but for 2016 I've decided to have one. I am going to do all homemade ornaments, and when I saw your arrows I knew that these will be what I will be making for my tree. My boyfriend and I are both bow hunters and these will perfect for our tree. My boyfriend also hasn't had a tree either for years. These will be perfect for our first tree together. I am going to make these and surprise him with these beautiful ornaments on Christmas Eve.Thanks for sharing, I'm looking forward to making these.

Hello and welcome to my blog!

Subscribe

Never miss a post! Sign up to receive new posts directly in your inbox: